Johnny Isakson’s Definition of Good Government: Destroy Democracy

Senator Johnny Isakson’s definition of good government:
“The Democrats (in Wisconsin) won the popular vote in State Assembly contests by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent but emerged with only 36 seats to the GOP’s 63.”

I had begun drafting the first of what is meant to be a series of posts highlighting Senator Isakson’s positions on major issues of the day, beginning with the Republicans’ flagrant anti-democratic moves in Wisconsin and Michigan (With Power Grabs in the Midwest, G.O.P. Risks a 2020 Backlash). Isakson’s endorsement of this assault on democracy and the rule of law is another indication of his willingness to sacrifice America’s basic moral and democratic values on the altar of keeping in power a Republican Party dedicated to keeping Trump as President and serving the interests of the rich and powerful.

I wanted to show that, as IndieDems predicted, Isakson’s two-year descent into Trump’s moral and intellectual sewer is bottomless.

Alas, E.J. Dionne, one of our major newspaper columnist, has scooped us by writing an analysis of the how the GOP’s actions in the Midwest are the latest in a pattern of Republican frontal assaults on democracy throughout America, and the dire consequences of their war. Dionne, of course, does not single out Isakson, but the Senator’s complicity is apparent for all to see.

Let me quote liberally from Dionne’s words that use facts and logic to describe the Republican Party’s threat to democracy and the rule of law. As you read, remember this: Georgia’s Senator Johnny Isakson finds all of this perfectly acceptable. I have occasionally inserted his name in parentheses to nail the point.

In case after case, Republicans (like Isakson) have demonstrated an eagerness to undercut democracy and tilt the rules of the game if doing so serves their ideological interests. The quiet coup by the GOP-controlled legislature in Wisconsin is designed to defy the voters’ wishes. It reflects an abandonment of the disciplines that self-government requires.

Republicans (like Isakson)are shifting power to the state legislature because radically gerrymandered district boundaries helped the GOP maintain their majorities in the state Senate and Assembly despite the Democrats’ performance at the top of the ticket.

Republican (Isakson’s) indifference to democratic norms is not confined to Wisconsin. Republicans in Michigan (which also replaced a Republican governor with a Democrat this year) are working on a similar effort.

Both states are borrowing from a playbook used by North Carolina Republicans to thwart the voters’ will after elections in 2016. And in states such as Florida and Utah, GOP legislators are also trying to dilute progressive referendum victories, according to the HuffPost.

The GOP’s (Isakson’s) anti-democratic impulse has far more in common with the old segregationist Democrats of the South than with the best Republican traditions that led to the rights-conferring 14th and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.

The party’s (Isakson’s) efforts to lock in power regardless of election outcomes also eerily echo some of the behaviors of anti-democratic politicians abroad.

But most in the party are either complicit or silent. Is it any wonder, then, that most Republicans (like Isakson) are also willing to go right along with Trump?

Johnny Isakson’s sacrifice of any semblance of respect for the 10 Commandments, the Golden Rule, America’s basic moral and democratic values—and common human decency—on the altar of keeping Donald Trump as President desecrates his country and his duty, and insults his constituents.

Dissenting voices to that judgment? Let your response begin by noting that Trump recently invited Kanye West to the Oval Office, sat by approvingly as West used words like “motherfucker” and “shit”, and gave him a hug afterwards. Not a peep of rebuke from Isakson. How further into the Trump sewer can you go?